Carlos - Take Care of Yourself as a Temple of God

Pastor Carlos is a very dear brother to us, he has been here in the city of Boston for many years and I have always felt that fatherly spirit of him. He invited me when I was new here in Boston to preach at his Pentecostal church, and I will never forget that you took a moment to have everyone embrace God. That I had never done. Oh, it was very powerful. So God has brought him in to share a little different testimony. So get ready and receive what God has for us. God bless you brother.

I appreciate the invitation that Pastor Gregory `extended to share with you something very special that God has given me. I am very glad to be here this afternoon, to be able to share something that I went through and that I want as a prophetic voice to bring this word to this church. These retreats that this church is carrying out have the purpose of moving us to another spiritual level. But in every spiritual move we have to prepare ourselves. We do not arrive at places by chance, we arrive by direction. True or false?

And we have to seek God's direction at that level so as not to arrive by surprise, so as not to arrive in a disorderly manner, so this afternoon I want to affirm what I said this morning that this message, well, is an event What happened in my life in the ministry. I have been married for 35 years with the same wife and with the same children. I have been knowing the Lord for 33 years and about 25 years in the ministry, after I was thrown out of Cagua.

But in this time, last three years, my life changed and I want to bring as a biblical basis the passage of Kings, First Kings, Chapter 19 and says the word of the Lord, verse 2 "then sent Jezebel to Elijah a messenger saying 'so do the gods, and even add me, if tomorrow at this time I have not put your person as one of them. Seeing the danger, he got up and left to save his life.

Say with me 'save life'....

".... and he came to Beersheba, which is in Judah, and left his servant there. And he went through the desert –say 'desert'- one day on the way and he came and sat under a juniper tree and wishing to die –say 'wishing to die', I don't want to be there- and wishing to die he said 'enough already, O Lord, take my life, for I am not greater than my parents, and lying down under the juniper tree, he fell asleep. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, "Get up and eat." Then he looked, and behold, at his head was a cake baked on the coals and a pot of water, and he ate and drank and fell asleep again. And the angel of Jehovah returned the second time, touched him saying 'get up and eat because you have a long way to go'. So he got up and ate and drank and strengthened himself with that food and walked 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mountain of God and there he went into a cave where he spent the night. And the word of Jehovah came to him, which said to him, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?'

Let us pray. Father, that you are in this place, we feel your presence in your spirit. We believe, my God, that there is a wonderful portion, a word to deliver to this town. Allow, Lord, that I can flow in your spirit to bring this word. And that it can be ministered to the hearts and supply the needs that this town has. Through Christ Jesus I ask you. Amen. Amen.

Say 'Glory to God'.

The Bible says that Elijah was a man subject to passions like ours. Elijah was a man subject to passions like ours and I make this clarification because we are all children of God, we are servants of God and we are going to go through certain stages in life.

And this morning as I was meditating and the spirit was speaking to me in morning worship, I understood why it was that it was here. This church is fasting, it is preparing for a different stage, for a spiritual dimension, to project some special gifts that God has given to this church, to reach dimensions that the holy spirit is indicating, that is why the pastor is in retirement. That's why the city of Boston is being revolutionized.

And God wants to use this church as a model and I come here not as a pastor, I come as a prophet of God. I come to bring the message and in the midst of this spiritual environment I do not want to seem negative, I want to bring you a word of motivation, encouragement, effort, because if revival surprises us when we are not prepared, or are physically ill, we cannot hold back the revival .

And throughout history we can make studies that revival has come to the churches, that revival has come to the people, that revival has come to the councils and for being mentally, psychologically, spiritually ill, not they have been able to hold back the revival and we do not want this church that God wants to use as a model, that God wants to use as a prophet, not lose in the revival. Do we agree, brothers? Do we agree, brothers?

Elijah had just had a great revival, what revival? They needed to have these kind of revivals sometimes, no, kill 400 people. Oh! Well, there are other revivals in the Bible. Two liars died, two thieves died at the altar. who were? And that brought them a revival.

Oh, but what I want to talk to you about, brothers, is about my life, what happened in my life in these two years. He was in a time of revival, he had moved the church to the Strand we were enjoying a revival, he was having a time of intensive prayer. I would get up at 4:30 in the morning and we would go to pray at a New Covenant church from 5 in the morning until 7 in the morning, Monday through Saturday. A rich time of adoration, a beautiful time of adoration, a deep intercession in the spirit. Things began to falter. There came a time in my life, what a time....... ah, well I'm a Pentecostal.

Ah, well, then they would have told me sooner.

There were moments in my life in the middle of that revival that God was dealing with my life and I now understand it. God began to detoxify me, to deal deeply with my life. The first thing he did was that through his studies he had accumulated more than 4,000 books, including some that I borrowed from Elding. All those books, which were for me, which represented pride for me, represented for me having them at the entrance of my home, on a display that when people got there, said 'how hard this man studies!'. And have you read them all? I have read all of them, of course even if it was the title, right?

But God knew that the only one who can occupy the place in the heart is Him, and the first thing he did was that we had to move in the apartment, my wife gave me an ultimatum 'no more books in home'. And out of obedience and not with pleasure, I kept them in a place, there the rain fell, they got wet, all the books were lost. Thousands of dollars and not only in money, but in pride, in possession, in pleasure.

God began to deal with my life. When we got to the Strand we had a very nice year. The city determined not to extend my contract, having the guarantee of being able to continue. I didn't want to fight the case, but all these situations began to take a toll on my life and drain my health. My health condition worsened, as the word of God declares that Elijah wished for death, I wished for it.

I planned my death, but I did not dare to do it because in front of my house is the sea, the beach and it said I plan my death. And when I began to think that the water was cold, I gave up. It sounds like a laugh and I do it as a comedy but it was a moment of incredible depression. It was a moment when I could no longer pray because if I prayed, what came out was crying, lamenting, complaining: why me, God? Why has this happened to me, Lord? I have served you for so many years and this is how I am going to end my ministry, my life, my family, everything I have.

I believe that at one point Elías felt those situations, he was persecuted, he went into a cave and the cave came a moment, that my home, my condition was a cave. I totally disconnected from any organization, from any event and in the cave that I had emotionally, it is a very terrible moment, brothers. The only person who went to visit me, of the few people, was brother Luis, I don't know if he went to..... but we've known each other for a long time, but I thank him.

Brothers, because as a ministry, as a man of God many times I even doubted, I even doubted why I had studied, I doubted why I had done so many things, and I questioned God from the beginning of my life, why I had given up my acting career, why wasn't I in the movies and on the other hand friends who had succeeded and who had drunk and made movies and were millionaires... I saw myself.

You know, don't be upset by what I'm going to say, do you know how I got here today? In public transportation. Maybe 5 or 6 years ago, getting on public transportation was for oh... I had to be in Volvo... I had to have five hundred dollar pens. an appearance.

And in this process God began to deal with my life, detailing the areas that I needed to amend. How many give the Lord a round of applause? One of the things that God gave me in this deal, I believe that we go to the word of the Lord.

First Corinthians 3:16. The word of God says: “You do not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him because the temple of God, which you are, is holy."

It is not a better time than you are living in fasting, because not only will fasting help you have a healthier contact with God, but it will detoxify and heal the body and throw away all those toxins that we have because we sweat... I mean, when you are praying intensely, right? When you fast it's for..... I mean, a Pentecostal guy.

They taught me, I come from a movement in Puerto Rico called Las Catacumbas, what could that be? It was a bunch of crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, long-haired young men. I didn't have long hair, I had an afro. My pastor had his hair here.... we were the type of hippies, that's where we came from, from a place in Puerto Rico called the underground. I come from that revival, I come from that environment of search for God and they told us 'when it is fasting it is called 'front on land'. Why land front? Because we didn't have a temple and we had to put our heads on the pure land and we sweated. That is why I tell you that I come from that environment where when one prays, one sweats because it is a struggle, it is a spiritual warfare, and that spiritual warfare is marvelous.

This church is looking for that revival and they are going to get it and they already have it. How many already have it? So let's hold that revival for the next dimension. Someone once said, I don't know which philosopher it was, 'a healthy mind, a healthy body'.

But my life totally, I want to fall back to the message, my life began to deteriorate, to get sick. I have here, that this morning I put it here, all these were the pills that I used in the morning, and that is a tension, brothers, because I preached about health, I preached about divine healing. Brothers, God came the moment on two or three occasions, once they gave me a girl whose parents were locked in the room smoking crack. The girl had inhaled the crack smoke, when I go to visit that family without knowing, I knock on the port, and the first thing that comes out is the father yelling, "oh my, my daughter died." She was dead from the inhalation of...... she is delivered into my arms, I pray for her, and God brings her back to life.

In other words, I have had profound experiences with God. I know what it's like to live in the spirit for three times, God takes me out of the spirit and takes me to tremendous places. In other words, I know life in the spirit and seeing myself in a condition, taking all those pills in the morning, when I know that God heals, I questioned God.

Doubts came into my life. God was dealing with my life. Many times we have to hit rock bottom to stabilize our life. And perhaps you, this morning or this afternoon, are descending, but remember that there will come a time when you will not be able to descend and then you will have the strength to get up again. And there you will be able to have the strength, the experience, the encouragement, the skill, the teaching to be able to live a firm life with God.

But that's how I saw myself, questioning God. I couldn't pray on my knees, as was my habit. I had to go to the shore of the beach to meditate, to pray and when I saw that the emotion was already coming to want to cry, I stopped praying and prayed in many ways, but never on my knees because what it seemed was crying and crying.

I was watching a movie, last night I saw Cinderella, I got......why isn't she here now. No, what's up? I cry in the morning. And telling secrets..... Someone told him that one more stripe doesn't hurt the tiger.

The point is that this whole situation, I believe that Elijah questioned God, when he says the word 'Elías was a man subject to passions like ours'. My body is dying inside. One morning when we left the temple in prayer, I felt like things were coming off me, like I was dying. And it wasn't spiritual issues, it was that he was dying. Because when the pancreas stops working, it is dying. When the heart does not pump enough blood, it is weakening, it is dying. And when organs, the livers, and all those internal organs that we have, life is dying. I told my wife 'I feel like I'm dying'.

Once I was leaving the supermarket and I wanted to walk, I do the shopping and when I leave the supermarket I had to sit down because I started to get dizzy and sweat. I thought that I was going to die there. I want to show you something in this process. God made me reflect and think about my life first: how is your life this afternoon?

Sometimes we pay attention to the body. Brothers, the body is the temple of the holy spirit. Your body is room, the direction of where God is is where you are. Did you hear that? The address, the telephone number how you can connect, is that God is there. If God is there, that's the address. They praise God.

Elijah arrived, at that moment in the cave, first he eats, exhaustion, brothers, is very terrible. One loses vision, that's why one has to know how to rest. Maybe you have it, maybe you don't, but at least try to get enough rest. The most important hours of sleep are from 2 to 4 in the morning. And those hours are the hours that many times one wakes up and loses sleep, because of problems and situations, and why? Because there is something there, there is something that prevents you from resting. If he knows that if he can steal the hours where the body recovers, the next day you're sicker, and so you go, little by little.

And we don't know all those things. But in this process that God led me, He made me learn so many things and I knew nothing about medicine, nothing about blood, nothing about food, and in a year and a half, God transformed my life. How many praise God for that?

Do you know why God transformed my life? To bring a prophetic voice to this church and to other churches, so that they prepare, so that they take care of their temple, the temple that God has given them, the habitation of the holy spirit that God is going to use you greatly, that God is going to project his image through you.

Do you know what it is to project the image of God? That when they see you, they see God himself, they see the power of God in your life. That they not only see you to see you, but that they see a man or a woman of God, a person who is totally delivered to God. That is God's desire in this church. Not only that they have a name, which is the largest church. No, that it is the church that carries the revival and shares it with other churches.

I believe that when God calls Elijah from the cave, he tells him to "come out", with all due respect I want to take that position because for that period of time I was locked up. But God tells him 'look, great things await you, a long journey and you are going to anoint the king of the north, and you are going to anoint the king of the south, and you are going to anoint that prophet to be your successor'. And on this day, brothers, I want to position myself to take this church and anoint it with the word of God so that it can carry the message and heal the wound to many peoples.

You are a temple of the holy spirit, we have to take care of ourselves physically. In this period of time I began to do an analysis, how many pastors were dying? How many men of God, women of God, the church are suffering from diseases? Stress, worries, depression, sugar levels, the heart, mental problems, spiritual problems of all kinds.

And God brought me a passage, let's go to the other passage, First Timothy, Chapter 1, verse 4. Paul already mature in the Gospel, already experienced in the things of life, who had had a great ministry and tells Timothy "do not pay attention to fables and endless genealogies that lead to disputes rather than edification of God than by faith, so I charge you now -listen well- for the purpose of this commandment is love born from a clean heart and of good conscience and unfeigned faith."

That word 'unfeigned faith' hit me hard. Because many times we want to live a faith, demonstrate a faith that we do not have based on guidelines, on structures, on concepts, on traditions that many times when we come to see, we no longer have faith, what we have are some commandments, some structures that they are sustaining the feeble faith we have.

That is why God, in the process of detoxifying me, began to tell me 'Carlos, evaluate your faith.' But to evaluate he had to lower me, crush me, to restore a new Carlos. I started going to the gym, at first the trainer told me to 'raise the bar', 45 pounds, and like..... taking measurements, huh? To impress me, and when I picked it up the 45-pound bar was gone.

But God is good. Say, God is good. It was God's beginning to restore my life. And it's time today for God to restore your life too. It is today, not tomorrow. It is today, it is now. Say 'now, I am going to take control of my life because the revival that is coming I am part of it'. Give the Lord a round of applause.

Let's all shout 'I'm part of the revival'.

I started going to the gym, I started dealing with my life. People began to leave the church and leave and pastor, some were leaving, some did not say they were leaving, and that hurt, but I said, no, I have to take control of my life. I'm going to tell you something, money can go, people can go, friends can go, but don't let your family go, don't let your wife or husband go. You heard me? Don't let your children be mistreated. That is the most beautiful gift that we have, our children, our wife, our husband, it is the most beautiful thing there is. When everyone leaves, your family is going to stay through the good times, well some..... but it's supposed to be through the bad ones too. At least there it says 'through thick and thin', but my wife stayed with me wonderfully. My children stayed and there was always a group of faithful. We give glory to God for the faithful. How many are faithful to this church? No, no, how many are faithful to this church? Are those up there faithful to this church? Raise your hand.

And God kept dealing with my life. When I started going to the gym, I had to go at times when no one was there. It was like the Samaritan woman, who went at times when no one was. She would arrive at noon because she was a harlot and had 5 husbands and the one she had was not hers, and she was criticized, and so I would go to the gym at times when no one was there.

And there he did what he could without knowing. I used to go to the sauna and it was my place of prayer, to the sauna praying, because I knew that I could pray there. That whole process dealt with my life. It doesn't matter where I am, there was a Latin American poet, I don't know where he is from, but he once said, and he said a clear truth, Rubén Darío said, 'the position of the body does not matter as long as the soul is on its knees'. Amen. ‘The position of the body does not matter if your soul is on its knees’, pray to God, pray to God, pray to God wherever you can. Meditate on God whenever you can, because God is there with you. Although apparently you don't feel it.

Elijah in that cave said, God left me, not anymore..... the angel came a second time, but now... but God told him 'Get out of that cave, because it's long road remains for you'. And when one hears those words from God, a year and a half ago, I was locked in the cave. This is the first message that I bring outside my church, this is the first... All this month I will be preaching in different churches, but I thank God that God started in this church, because God wants to use this church .

I go back and repeat, God wants to use her, but he wants to heal her, he wants us to start eating properly, he wants us to exercise, to move. Brothers... look, during this time I had relationships with people who were not Christians. Oh! Yes, because many times we, our circle is closing more and there are few who can evangelize because our circle becomes only a small circle of brothers. And we have to..... if we want to reach, if we want to bring revival to other people we have to expand the circle of friends to be able to speak the Gospel to them.

I began to make friends with Africans, with Muslims, and I spoke to all of them about the Lord. It is a wonderful time. You ask me 'how do you feel pastor? The best time of my life I am living now.

I believe that when God tells Elijah 'come out of that place and you are going to anoint the kings of the north and the kings of the south, the prophet Elisha', it was the most wonderful time because many times we think that our ministry is over, there is no more for anything, the criticism, the gossip about the fallen tree, we begin to do things with it, to destroy. But God, God has always reserved for you and me a new dimension, a new field to experience, a few words of encouragement for others.

Do you know what it is to anoint kings? When Elijah already said, 'I'm here for .....' But God says 'no,' God tells you that it is not your time yet, that there is a wonderful time for your life, to begin to try to heal and exercise, eat correctly, drink enough water. We have, brothers, many times we say 'Lord, heal me' and receive healing, but then you begin to believe, not just say 'God healed me'. No, start dealing with your life, taking care of yourself, resting, breathing. The most wonderful thing is going to the beach to breathe.

One said 'oh, what is the air for? Ah, to fill the lungs. I didn't know why. well, simply.... But when you breathe that oxygen reaches your lungs. When that oxygen arrives, there are about 5 portions that the blood has that takes that oxygen and takes it to your muscular system because through vitamins, it is what you have learned, maybe there are other people who can enlighten me, but it is what I have learned, take those vitamins, especially iron and transport it to the muscular system and you will recover. Oxygen only. Because? Because you get peace, tranquility. You can see life from another angle, not just work, do things, simply God asks you 'peace, tranquility, start eating properly'.

I could talk about food but time does not give me, but the advice and testimony of my life. I could have been in the grave. I could have been in a hospital, but God has renewed my life. God renewed the life of Elijah and God wants, this afternoon, to renew your life. God wants to deal with your life.

If you've gotten to where you've gotten, start over. God is the God of opportunities. People say, no, America is the place of opportunity. No, it's God. God is the God of opportunities. We as people have come to these countries, oh, America, the place of opportunity! It is God, it is God the God of opportunities. Take it today, receive that God in your life. restore your life through the dimension of the spirit taking care of your body, taking care of your health, trying to keep your family members alive.

How many praise God for that? Give God a big round of applause.

Now I go to the gym when it's busiest. Oh! Hallelujah! My wife tells me 'don't wear shorts, don't go with straps like that on your T-shirt showing...' No, no and I leave the house with a sweatshirt and when I get to the lockers, there I put on my thin sweatshirt, like that showing the muscles.... It's just that I have a long way to go and I'm going to enjoy it.

I promised my wife once that I would last 100 years and bother her and I will keep it. No yes, they all say... but when one is away for two, three days, they say, where are you, baby?

I go to the gym, there are 18-year-old boys, young people. I am their father or grandfather, I am the oldest, and I compete with them, I compete with them. How many are you going to put? 200. 200 go. How many repetitions? Ten repetitions. Ten repetitions. How many sets? Three, there they go. Competing with juniors, when a year ago he couldn't lift the 45-pound bar or do one repetition. Because? Because I took control of my life.

How many are going to take control of their lives? How many are going to take control of your life? If you don't take control of your life, illnesses will take over, feelings will take over, situations, the environment, all these things will take over. And God has given you authority to take control of your life.

We're going to stand up and we're going to thank the Lord. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Close your eyes for a moment. Meditate on these words that you have received from taking control of your life, from evaluating the situation where you are and saying 'I am going to get up. I am going to restore myself. I'm going to heal. God has given me the ability, God gave the body the ability to heal itself.

Take control and say 'Lord, that's as far as my frustration has come. This is where my depression came from. I am done. Sir, I'm going to get out of this cave. I will get out of this situation. I'm going to take back what the devil took from me. He wanted to take away my ministry, he wanted to take away my health, he wanted to take away my life. but, I told him or I said to myself 'now, I'm going to resume, I'm going to advance, Lord, you are with me'.

I tell you this afternoon, God is with you. God has not abandoned you. It is a process that God is using to detoxify you, so that you leave behind those areas that are not going to serve you for the spiritual dimension that God is bringing you, for the dimension that the Holy Spirit is indicating in this church, for a prophetic dimension, for reach the peoples, the nations.

I was talking to the brother who took me to the office, Omar, God bless Omar. Many years ago God told us in Puerto Rico, I want to take them to a dimension and I want to use them around the world. We didn't understand that. And because we didn't understand it, we missed the great revival in Puerto Rico of the church where we were. Based on this experience, I do not want this church, or others, to lose what God has for us.

Revival equals a lot of sacrifice and we can't let it lose for nothing. Due to my carelessness, for not knowing how to take care of my life for a little, not only revival, but life itself, I lose. And this afternoon God says to you 'take control of your life'. Go back and tell the Lord, 'Lord, I am going to take control of my life. The ministry that you have is mine and I am going to execute it, I am going to carry it out, I am going to restore it, Lord. This temple is yours Lord. I give it to you again. Give me the wisdom, give me the knowledge to restore my body, your body, your temple. Today is the day, brother. Today is the day sister. The altar is open so I can pray with you.